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The huge eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano in spring
2010 spewed fine aerosol particles, sulfur-rich gases and ash,
causing massive air travel disruptions across Europe. Researchers
studying those emissions are now shedding light on how and where
that ash traveled.

"The huge economic impact of this event shows the need to
describe with precision how a
volcanic plume spreads through the atmosphere," Arantxa
Revuelta, a researcher at the Spanish Research Centre for Energy,
Environment and Technology, said in a statement.

Revuelta and other scientists used satellites, laser detectors,
sun photometers and other instruments to study the ash and
aerosols (a term for small particles suspended in the air) as
Eyjafjallajökull was erupting.

They found that different types of particles spread over
different regions at different times. For example, they found
very fine sulfur-rich particles over Spain and Portugal in May
2010, toward the end of the eruption. Alternatively, ash
particles that reached central Europe in April were more than 20
times larger than those fine particles.

Ash, which is composed of the thicker particles, can cause severe
damage to airplane engines. Fine particles, like those found
over the Iberian Peninsula, are more dangerous to people on the
ground because the particles are small enough to enter
respiratory and circulation systems.

Together, the observations will help scientists develop and test
models that predict where ash and other particles will travel
after an eruption.

"During the management of the crisis it became evident that there
are still no precise models that provide real-time data for
delimiting an affected airspace, for example," said Carlos
Toledano, from the University of Valladolid, who led one of the
studies.

One team is developing a model known as Fall3d, which is
especially important for air travel because it predicts the
concentrations of aerosol particles on the ground and in the air
at different times after an eruption. Toledano and other
researchers hope that fine-tuning this model will help airlines
and transportation authorities make decisions in future
eruptions.

The researchers' findings were published March 30 in the journal
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, and in the March issue of the
journal Atmospheric Environment.